The Quandary of Fire by HyperSonicOne and Epicninja1

The Quandary of Fire- Chapter 16, By Epicninja1

Finally, thought Strainor. Freedom...
    ...?
    He stopped, hating the hint of a question that lingered on the edges of his thoughts. He looked back and found a ridge of ice sprouting from his footprints in the snow.
    He gritted his teeth.
    Was it really possible that his condition was growing worse? Or was his control over his powers slipping from inattention?
    Freedom. Freedom.
    Moments ago, it had seemed wonderful. But now reality was cutting through his being like Sir Fangar's Glacior. What would he do with this ice that was still part of him? Why had he wanted to be free at all?
    Don't think like that! he reprimanded himself. If your decisions led you here, were they--they were the right ones.
    Wincing, he forced the ice back into the ground.
    Then he reached down and pulled out the glass vial Dark had dropped at the Lion Temple.
    Not for the first time, he wondered what it contained. Every time he tried to study the fluid inside, his eyes were somehow guided away. The glass of the vial was almost painfully warm in his hand.
    Drinking the fluid was probably not a good idea; but then, what else would it be for? Would Dark have simply given it to him under normal circumstances? Could it be what some commanders on the side of fire called a potion?
    Most were supposed to treat physical ailments or sicknesses, but some were rumored to have supernatural effects. And if the vial did hold a supernatural potion...
    ...all the heat radiating from it couldn't mean anything good for him. One sip might melt the ice that kept him alive.
    Thankful that there was a stopper on the vial. Strainor secured it to his belt and continued on toward the Lion Temple.

When Sir Fangar came to the door of his chambers, he gaped in horrified surprise.
    "Strainor?" he whispered. "Why are you here? And what happened to your ice--your skin--you're--whole?!"
    The saber-tooth with the bundle on his back smiled.
    "Don't worry, Fangar--I can explain everything...."

The Quandary of Fire- Chapter 18, By HyperSonicOne

The guard walked up the steps into the Lion Temple. He found Avian and Dark on the roof again. The guard cleared his throat.
    "Yes?" Avian answered without looking at the guard.
    "There is a saber-tooth at the gate, and he insists on seeing you. He claims to have some sort of potion of Dark's..." Upon hearing this, Dark immediately took off and flew towards the gate. Avain instead walked down through the lion temple with the guard. Dark had already let Strainor into the temple.

    "What is this? Is it an act of friendship, or another ploy to get rid of me like the guards?" Strainor asked.
    "Of course not." Dark said. "Avian found me and told me about you. This, my friend, is a potion that can restore an animal to it's natural state."
    Strainor suddenly had a thought. Do I believe him, or do I get rid of it...? The thought passed quickly, and he took out the vial. "I don't have anything more to lose." He said, as he took the stopper off the vial, and drank.

End of Chapter 18.

The Quandary of Fire- Chapter 20, By Epicninja1

    Strainor blinked and looked at his hands. They felt...warm.
    Dark smiled. "It is a little hard to swallow, isn't it?"
    Strainor put a hand to his chest. Underneath, he could feel his heart beating. "In more ways than one," he said quietly. "For a second after I drank that potion, I thought it would melt me for sure."
    "I know my trade," said Dark simply.
    "So...what now?" Avian asked Strainor. "You've lost your ice...and you've been thrown out of your tribe. Are you still our enemy?"
    Strainor tried to call upon his powers of ice. They didn't respond.
    He shivered, suddenly feeling more vulnerable.
    "Well?" Avian pressed.
    "I don't know," said Strainor, looking at himself in the mirror again.
    Avian, Dark, and Eris exchanged glances. "You could join us," said Avian carefully.
    Strainor turned to face them all. His blue eyes were swirling, changing their color to a muddy yellow. "There's no place for me here," he said. "You saw how the guards treated me...at least, I think you saw. And Fluminox...I was Fluminox's natural enemy even before the whole ice thing."
    "But all that doesn't have to stop you, does it?" said Avian, throwing caution (and subtlety) to the winds. "You came here, right? You insisted on seeing Dark, didn't you? You make it sound like you don't want to join us, but I think you do."
    Strainor closed his eyes and muttered something that sounded like, "Old habits...."
    The tension of decision settled on the room.
    Avian and Dark's eyes were fixed on Strainor, and Eris's eyes flicked back and forth between the three.
    Then the sounds of a scuffle came from the hall.
    "Can't you just let me pass?" said an exasperated voice.
    "Actually, I can't," came the guard's voice. "You'll have to hand over your weapons first...."
    "Come on! This is my own room!"
    "Sorry, but I'm under orders--"
    "From who?"
    "Uh--Avian and Dark."
    There was a silence. "Are they in the room?" asked the first voice, more calmly.
    "Well...." said the guard.

The Quandary of Fire- Chapter 22, By Epicninja1

Laval stared after Strainor in complete disbelief.
    Then, slowly, he rounded on Avian. "What have you DONE!?" he roared.
    Avian took a deep breath and said simply, "I brought back his speedor."
    Laval growled in frustration. "No, what you did was let him get away!
    "Guards! Get to your speedorz and catch that saber-tooth!" Again he turned to Avian. "And you--come with me."
    "Now, hold on a minute," said Dark, stepping in. "You're not taking him to the holding cells, are you?"
    "And what if I am?" snapped Laval. "You can't stop me. You have no authority here, in the Lion City. Observing a hunter might've been interesting, but that doesn't make it the right thing to do. Experiment's over."
    But Laval had gone a little too far. Dark bristled, eyeing the lion coldly.
    "You're wrong," he said. "I can stop you. And I will."
    And with that, Dark launched himself onto Laval, and the two of them went down.
    And in the confusion of the moment, neither of them noticed that Avian had already slipped away.

As it turned out, he'd gone up to the roof again to think.
    Even he had been a little surprised by Strainor's sudden departure. But part of him knew that no matter what Strainor was doing, it wouldn't put him or Dark in harm's way. At least, not purposely.
    From where he stood, he could see Strainor's speedor enter the trees, with around a dozen lion speedorz not far behind. "Don't let them catch you," he whispered.
    Then he spread his wings and dove off the roof....

Strainor rode as he had never ridden before.
    Instinctively, he knew he was being followed; but he also knew that he would reach the Ice Fortress long before his pursuers.
    And, sure enough, after weaving through the last few trees and pulling his speedor to a halt in front of the fortress, there were only the faintest sounds of pursuit from the jungle behind him.
    But as he climbed the fortress stairs, he forgot he was being chased at all in the face of a new discovery: there were no guards anywhere.
    The Ice Fortress was empty.

The Quandary of Fire- Chapter 24, By Epicninja1

"Wh--what?!" Strainor shouted as Sir Fangar closed in on him.
    Sir Fangar snorted, swinging his Glacior. Strainor sidestepped the halfhearted swipe.
    "You heard me," said Fangar. "We--"
    Suddenly, he stopped. He looked Strainor up and down carefully, then stepped closer and whispered in his ear.
    Strainor's head swam with confusion at what he said: "Sorry, Strainor, I thought you were the other one...how did you get here so fast?"
    Strainor blinked, at a complete loss for words. Around them, the battle raged, but its effects never once touched them.
    "Well?!" hissed Sir Fangar.
    Strainor's heart pounded, and he was so unused to the feeling that he actually feared it would burst. He could feel Fangar's cold breath on his ear.
    Then, in a sudden, weird strobe of light, Strainor was knocked flat on his back.
    Immediately he sat up again, looking around in a panic. The battle was still going on (sort of), but Sir Fangar had disappeared.
    What?! thought Strainor. What had just happened?
    ...I thought you were the other one....
    Strainor shook his head to clear it, then looked up to find Stok the saber-tooth captain staring down at him.
    "Well, what have we here?" muttered Stok, pulling out a simple, yet still dangerously sharp-looking, short sword.
    Strainor groped at his belt, but it didn't do any good: he had no weapons with him. Or did he...?
    Slowly, he reached a hand behind his back.
    "We're winning, you know. Thanks to y--the ice Chi," Stok said, addressing Strainor directly.
    Then he lowered his voice: "What are you? You can't be here unless...Nowstranore...changed...."
    None of this was making any sense to Strainor. "Was I supposed to hear that?" he asked haltingly, still subtly reaching behind his back.
    Stok's eye twitched. "Hear what?"
    Strainor's fingers finally closed around a fang tied to his back; with a jerk, he tore the string that held it in place and threw it at Stok as hard as he could.
    Then he leaped to his feet and ran away, back toward the crescent....

The Quandary of Fire- Chapter 25, By HyperSonicOne

Strainor ran all the way back to the crescent. It didn't look good. The hunters were devastating the fire tribes. They brought the bastion down. They destroyed the front wall of the city. They were even beating the phoenix.
    This is not good, Strainor thought as he ran over to Avian. He was blocking Dark from attacks. Strainor then saw why. Dark was busy examining an orb of golden chi.
    Strainor quickly figured out what was going to happen. Avian is going to use it. Dark handed it to Avian and nodded.
    Avian ran over to the field, and as he passed Strainor, said "You might wan't to stay back." Once he was in front of the hunters, he took a deep breath, and plugged in the orb of golden chi.

End of Chapter 25